


She called you for 2,199 days

by stealing-jasons-job (changingthefairy_tale)



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: (mostly), 5 Times, Bellarke, Canon Compliant, F/M, Light Angst, Madi POV, Madi calls Bellamy on the radio, Post-Season/Series 05, Radio Calls
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:01:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25198912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/changingthefairy_tale/pseuds/stealing-jasons-job
Summary: The four times Madi called Bellamy on the radio to talk, plus the one time she didn't have to.___Inspired by aTumblr post from @historyofbellarke
Relationships: Bellamy Blake & Clarke Griffin & Madi, Bellamy Blake & Madi, Bellamy Blake/Clarke Griffin, Clarke Griffin & Madi
Comments: 21
Kudos: 161





	She called you for 2,199 days

I.

For years, Madi made fun of Clarke for the radio calls. Even though she never got a response, she continued to call every single day. It was Madi's favorite thing to tease her about, her afternoon chats, and "date nights" with Bellamy up on The Ring.

She always called Bellamy, never the others. Sometimes she'd give him a message to pass along, but it was always him she addressed first.

Madi knew she missed him terribly. And while they were getting on just fine on their own, there was a part of Madi's heart that broke for her adoptive mom every time she came back from one of her daily calls misty-eyed.

Sometimes she let Madi listen in on the calls with her, but Madi never really spoke. She appreciated being included, but they were _Clarke's thing_. She always felt weird, talking to these imaginary people who may or may not be able to hear them on up in space — people who were simultaneously strangers and family.

And more times than not, Madi knew that she wanted time to talk to Bellamy alone.

In almost two and a half years on the ground together, Clarke had never missed a single day. Sometimes the calls were long. Sometimes they were shorter. But she never missed one.

That is, until Clarke came down with a nasty bought of food poisoning. Madi did her best to keep Clarke comfortable and hydrated, but Clarke couldn't even keep water down. She stayed curled up under blankets all day in a cold sweat, puking into a bucket next to the bed every 20 minutes or so.

By the time Clarke was able to go to sleep that night, Madi was exhausted. She was about to curl up in her own bed to get some rest when her eye caught on the radio sitting on the kitchen table.

Clarke hadn't called that day.

Logically, Madi knew Clarke missing a day was immaterial. Even if Clarke's friends had made it to The Ring on time, the radio wasn't transmitting. They wouldn't know she missed a day.

But still...

She grabbed the radio and slipped outside to the Rover, where she crawled up on the hood to watch the stars.

"Um... hey Bellamy," she started hesitantly, her voice coming out smaller than she wanted. "I guess I should formally introduce myself. I'm Madi, the one Clarke talks about sometimes in her calls. Sorry it's so late... and that it's not Clarke. It's just, well... it's been a tough day."

Madi felt tears prick the back of her eyes, and she sniffled before continuing.

"Clarke got really sick today. And I did my best to help her, but... I'm just a kid, you know? Had you and Monty and Raven been down here, I bet you could have helped more. Especially you. She always seems better after she talks to you, so I bet if you were here, you could have made her feel better today, too."

She knew she was rambling at this point, and she stopped herself before she started crying in earnest.

"I guess what I'm trying to say," she said, wiping the wetness from her cheeks, "is that she misses you. A lot. And I know I've never met you, but today I missed you, too."

Madi stayed outside for a bit longer until her breathing evened out. Then she hooked the radio up to the Rover to charge before heading inside to sleep.

* * *

II.

Sometimes, Madi really wished she had someone else on the ground with them.

Clarke was amazing, but Clarke was also her mom. And as much as she loved her, there were too many times when she just wanted to talk to someone else.

It's days like those that got her started making her own radio calls up to The Ring. Every now and again, she and Clarke would get into a fight. Madi would want to go on an adventure that Clarke thought was too dangerous. Or Clarke would want Madi to help her with something around the village that Madi had no interest in.

When things got to be too much, Madi would escape with the radio to talk to Bellamy and the others.

"Hey Bellamy," she said one night after a nasty fight with Clarke. "It's me, Madi. Of course, you probably knew that. There's only two of us down here, and you could probably pick Clarke's voice out of a crowd of a hundred."

She settled in, laying back with the radio up to her mouth to talk.

"Clarke and I got into a fight today. She just... she's too protective. We were out scouting the other day, and we found a place to rock climb near the edge of Eden. It's beautiful, Bellamy. The rocks hang over a perfect pit of blue water, and I think it would be so fun to climb up and jump off into the water. Of course, Clarke thinks it's too dangerous."

She knew she was ranting at that point, but it felt cathartic to get it all out there to someone listening.

"Knowing you, you would probably agree with her. 'Madi, it's not safe. My daughter, my responsibility.'" She tries to imitate his voice. Clarke said it was like a low rumble, the sound of soft thunder during an afternoon storm.

Madi chuckles to herself before trailing off. "I know you aren't really my dad, just like Clarke isn't really my mom. But sometimes it's just easier that way, you know? To see you guys as my parents. From Clarke's stories about you, I think you guys would have made good parents if you were here."

Tears start to prick behind her eyes, a surefire sign it's time to change the subject.

"Anyway, I know you would probably agree with her. But I bet I could get Murphy and Harper on my side. And definitely Octavia. And between the four of us, I could definitely convince you and Clarke to let me try.

"It's not like I haven't been on an adventure before. Days with minimal chores can be really boring, honestly. And sometimes Clarke's only in the mood to sit around camp and relax. Those are the days I take my sketchbook and find a new place to draw."

She tells him about some of her solo adventures. The time she climbed up a tree to draw a bird that had three wings instead of two. The nights Clarke lets her camp out in the Rover instead of the cabin, where she can stare up at the sky until she drifts off at night.

"If you were here, we'd go on so many fun adventures. Harper could teach me how to shoot a bow and arrow and track. Raven could teach me how to fix the Rover since Clarke is almost hopeless with anything but minor repairs. Echo could teach me how to fight, even though I know Clarke doesn't really want me to learn. Monty could teach me how to garden better."

At that point, she stopped feeling angry and started feeling guilty for wishing for others instead of Clarke.

"She's doing the best that she can," she amended. "And I love her so much for it. But sometimes I just wish you guys were here, too. Hence me calling you more often lately. And I know she wishes you were here, too. It's why she calls every day."

Madi could hear the sound of Clarke's voice calling for her through the trees. It was time to head back.

"Clarke's looking for me. It's probably time for dinner. We're having rabbit tonight, which is probably better than the algae Monty makes on the Ring — sorry Monty if you're listening in.

"Anyway... just know that I miss you guys. I can't wait for you to be back down here so we can be a proper family, and I can get some new friends."

With one last longing look to the sky, she clicks off the radio and goes off to find Clarke.

III.

"Only a few more weeks until it's safe for you guys to come down," Madi said, starting off that day's radio call without any preamble. "Clarke's been marking off the days on the side of the cabin. I'm sure you guys have been counting down the days on the walls up in space. Clarke told me she used to draw on the walls before she came to the ground. Have you guys found them?"

Madi could hear her own excitement in her voice. Less than a month until she got to meet Bellamy and Murphy and everyone else.

"I can't wait to meet you all. Clarke's told me all of the stories, so I feel like I know most of you by now. Murphy is the jackass — whoops, don't tell Clarke I cursed; she says I have to practice being polite for when you guys come down, and we get the bunker opened. But even though Clarke says Murphy is, and I quote, 'the worst,' she also says that he was really funny and resourceful.

"She says Harper is such a badass. Clarke says that she wishes she were as strong and talented as Harper. I know I've told you this before, but I really hope Harper can teach me all of her ways on how to track and hunt with a bow and arrow. Finn taught Clarke a long time ago, but she says Harper was even better.

"Then there's Monty, who Clarke says is one of the best people she's ever met. And one of the smartest. He'd be able to teach me so much. But Raven is the smartest. Clarke told me about how she helped Jasper rig the rockets to launch to help you survive when Trikru attacked. And about she fixed the radios so that you guys could talk to the Ark.

"But the best stories are about you and Octavia. She told me about how you raised Octavia and hid her from the people who would have taken her away, just like my birth parents did for me. Clarke told me about how you saved her from the panther pit, and how you taught her how to hunt. But my favorite story is how you were the Trojan Horse inside Mount Weather, though. She could always count on you, no matter what.

"I can't believe I get to finally meet you — everyone, but especially you Bellamy. Octavia may be my favorite, but I know you're Clarke's... so you're sort of mine, too. She probably tries to hide it because... well, because she's Clarke... but I know she's really excited, too.

"See you soon, Bellamy."

IV.

Madi was worried about Clarke. As the days turned to weeks and then months, Madi could tell that it was starting to weigh on her. She'd been so strong the past six years, but she'd always had hope.

That hope was slipping away little by little every day that a ship carrying Clarke's friends (really family at this point) didn't streak across the sky. She tries to stay strong for Madi, but she knows better. Clarke is almost to her breaking point.

"It's been almost a full year since it's been safe for you to come down," she complained one night from her haven inside the Rover. Clarke had gone to sleep early, leaving Madi to tend to the fire once the sun went down. She'd intended to follow her mother to bed, but when she got close to the cabin she heard the sobs.

Clarke didn't cry in front of Madi, always refusing to break down or put any of the emotional burden on her. But Madi was older now, and she knew that the longer Bellamy waited to come down, the more Clarke's carefully constructed wall was breaking. Even still, she gave her mom some privacy, going instead to the Rover to talk to Bellamy on the radio.

"Clarke's not in a great place if I'm being honest. I know that you worry, and I'm sorry if I'm making it worse. I try to cheer her up and keep her busy, but I can tell that it's hard on her every day she doesn't see you.

"She thinks either you died up there, or you decided you don't want to come down. I honestly think she might be more worried its the second one. I don't believe her, though. I think she'd know deep down if you'd died all those years ago. You guys are soulmates; even I can see that. And I've heard all the stories about how many times you saved her. You wouldn't leave her down here if you had any way to come back."

Madi felt her eyes start to droop in exhaustion. Rather than go back to the cabin, she just lays down across the Rover seats, curling in on herself with the radio up by her ear.

"I believe in you, Bellamy," she said, sleep threatening to overtake her. "I know you'll come down as soon as you can. But for my mom's sake... please hurry. She misses you too much."

V.

"You should tell her."

Madi and Bellamy were standing across the room from Monty and Clarke, who are discussing plans for cryo. They ruined the last green spot on Earth, and Madi's brain now housed the consciousnesses of all the Commanders before her. But they were alive.

Bellamy and Clarke weren't on the best of terms, though. Madi had warned him that Clarke wouldn't forgive him for going behind her back to give Madi the Flame. To be completely honest, after just 24 hours with it in her head, she'd started to come to the same conclusion as her mother.

It was weird, watching them interact now. She'd been raised on stories of how Bellamy understood Clarke like no one else in the world. But when they came down, it was like they were off-kilter. Bellamy had fallen in love with someone else (well, Madi wasn't so sure it was love, but she realized she was biased so she kept her mouth shut), and it seemed like he and Clarke didn't agree on anything anymore.

Monty had jokingly told her that it wasn't entirely unlike watching their first weeks on the ground years before. But Madi knew it was something deeper.

"Tell her what?" Bellamy asks, only half listening. His focus is on Clarke, like it always is. Even when they aren't in sync, they're still watching each other.

"That you love her." With that, Bellamy's head whipped toward Madi. She would have laughed at the comedy of the movement, but she kept it in check.

"It's not like that Madi," he tried to explain. But the look on his face told Madi everything she needed to know. Well, really everything Madi had known since the first time Clarke told her the story about that panther pit. "We've both grown up, apart. I'm with Echo, and she's... we don't click anymore. She doesn't need me anymore."

Madi rolled her eyes at him, crossing her arms over her chest. God, how can two people so smart be so dumb?

Before continuing, Madi hesitated. Should she tell Bellamy about the radio calls? Would Clarke be upset?

 _He needs to know,_ a voice echoed within her mind. She thought it sounded like Lexa, the Commander before her. Madi had seen glimpses of her in her dreams the past few nights. Lexa had known Clarke and Bellamy.

"She called you every day for 2,199 days," she said at last, looking up at him. His eyes flicked to Clarke. "I was raised on stories of you saving her, of this epic love story that started when you caught her over that panther pit. And then you came back and saved her again, only for her to find out that while she was calling you every day rain or shine, you were moving on with someone else."

He looked floored by Madi's confession, but she continued.

"And to make things worse, you then betrayed her by giving me the Flame. She'd had it before, and she knew the risks. Clarke very clearly told you that she didn't want me to go through that, and you made the conscious decision to betray her trust. Don't get me wrong, I understand why you did it. But you can't fault her for not agreeing."

Bellamy just nodded, still studying Clarke. She looked up then, apparently sensing their eyes on her. There's a confused look on her face, silently asking them if everything was okay. Madi gave her a small nod and a smile. Clarke returned one of her own before turning back to her conversation.

"She needs you more than she's willing to admit," Madi said, reaching out tentatively to take his hand.

She felt like she knew him, both from Clarke's stories and from the time they'd spent together since they came back down. But she had to remind herself that to him, she was still a stranger. When he let her take his hand into her own, squeezing it the way she wished he could have all those years she called him on the radio like he was her dad, gathered the courage to say the last little bit of her speech.

"She just thinks you don't need her anymore."

Bellamy meets Madi's eyes, studying her in a way that makes Madi squirm a little under his gaze. Clarke had never told her about how intimidating he could be. But something about him made Madi want to stand up straighter, make him proud.

After a few moments, a wry smile pulled at the corner of his lips.

"You're too smart for someone so short."

Madi couldn't help but smile as he makes his way up to where Clarke and Monty stood. Monty excused himself, leaving Bellamy and Clarke to talk for a minute. Madi couldn't hear what he said, but Clarke gave him a small smile. When they wrapped their arms around each other, Madi knew everything was going to be alright.

She knew at that point that Bellamy never heard her all those years she called him on the radio. But Madi couldn't help but thank the stars for listening and bringing him back home to them.

_Fin._

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I appreciate any and all feedback, loves.   
> __
> 
> Come hang out with me on Tumblr @changingthefairy-tale!


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